Dr. Gerald Parker: New World Screwworm arrives —"sometimes there is bureaucratic inertia."

Dr. Gerald Parker, an acclaimed biodefense/One Health expert and high-ranking official across several administrations, experienced New World screwworm (NWS) as a boy in Texas while assisting his veterinarian father treat pets invaded by the parasite. Michaela Simoneau, CSIS Fellow, joined the conversation. In the late 1950s, the scaled introduction of sterile male flies — 50 million per week — was a brilliant scientific discovery, combined with a public private partnership with the ranching community. NWS was cleared from the United States by 1966, and from Mexico and Central America by 2006. The barrier began to decay in this decade, a function of migration, illicit cattle trafficking, a decline in the effectiveness of the sterile flies, Covid interruptions, and complacency and bureaucratic inertia. NWS has now arrived in Texas and New Mexico. The race is now fully on to restore control. We need an "Operation Warp Speed" mentality to advance multiple technological innovations, diplomacy, financing, a massive expansion of flies — perhaps as high as one billion per week.